Pulmonary venous-bronchial fistula following left atrial pressure line insertion: iatrogenic cause of air embolism following cardiac surgery.

A 65-year-old patient sustained massive air embolism after the needle used for left atrial pressure line insertion punctured the posterior wall of the superior pulmonary vein, entering the middle lobe bronchus and causing a pulmonary venous-bronchus fistula. This is an apparently heretofore unrecognized potential cause of massive air embolism following cardiac surgery.